Red and Black Hockey

In the final game of round robin play in the Traverse City prospects tournament on Tuesday night, the Hurricanes hopefuls soundly thrashed those of the Columbus Blue Jackets 8-1. Up until now, the Canes had been having a hard time finding the net, but they found it in a big way. After the first game in which the Hurricanes were beaten by Minnesota 2-1, all of the talk was Jeff Skinner. Everyone said that he would be a big factor, and he lived up to that talk tonight, contributing one goal and four assists to help the Canes win and take second place in the “Gretzky division”. Tomorrow, they’ll play the third place game against Tampa, who was the second place team from the “Howe division”.

Mike Murphy went the distance in nets, allowing just the one goal. This helped him maintain a GAA of 1.0 and he finished the round robin portion with a save percentage of .963.

Skinner’s five point night skyrocketed him to the top of the scoring charts for the tournament. Minnesota’s Jarod Palmer and Tampa’s James Wright joined fellow Hurricane Matt Kennedy with five points at the top of the list. Kennedy also had a five point (2/3) explosion against the Jackets.

There was already a lot of speculation that Jeff Skinner would be able to make the jump to the NHL, and Jim Rutherford has to be happy with what the kid did tonight. It’s not exactly a situation where the roster spot is his to lose, but it’s his for the taking.

Kennedy and Dalpe had seven shots on goal apiece while Skinner registered six.

Jason Missiaen had a rough night in nets for the Jackets, dealing with 50 shots on goal. For the tournament, he played two games, faced 76 shots and allowed 13 goals. Needless to say, this is not what Columbus was looking for.

Camp is open and the Canes will play their first preseason game a week from tonight at home against the Florida Panthers. Canes fans will finally get a good look at #53 in game-speed action.

For the Canes, many of the contributors tonight are already set to go in Charlotte, but Dalpe and Skinner have their sights set a little higher.